County approves radio maintenance plan

The final plan for maintenance and upkeep of the radio towers was one of several topics on the agenda at Tuesday morning’s Butler County Commission meeting.

Kari Adams

The final plan for maintenance and upkeep of the radio towers was one of several topics on the agenda at Tuesday morning’s Butler County Commission meeting.

The plan, which was originally discussed in the meeting two weeks prior, has been named the “modified red plan.”

The modified red plan has been designed to ensure the safety of the citizens of Butler County is taken into account.

As the plan states, the tower maintenance for all of public safety services’ radios will be covered by the general fund of Butler County, while all departments and services that wish to have radios on the system must pay a yearly maintenance fee. Those departments would include, but are not limited to: Augusta Public Works, school systems and rural water.

“The system was built primarily as a public safety system,” said Jeff Armanrout, director of Strategic Communications. “All public safety agencies were covered from day one, but if anyone else wanted to join, they would have to purchase their own radios.”

The maintenance fee, which is billed to agencies that are not public-safety oriented, will be $50 per year per radio.

“Our main concern,” said Police Chief John Jones, of the Leon Police Department, “was that someone would try to jump on the system and completely bypass the board.”

“It’s cleaner to separate the public safety services from non-public safety. There is no gray area,” commented Commissioner Jeff Masterson.

The commission board voted to abide by the decision to use the modified red plan to fund the maintenance of the radio towers 4-0 with only Dan Woydziak absent.

Another order of business for the commission was the purchase of highway striping materials. After seeking bids for the different materials needed to complete the project, Darryl Lutz, Butler County engineer/director of Public Works, brought the information before the board to consider.

“The prices were better this year than last year,” said Lutz. “Colorado Paint Co. gave the low bid for yellow and white paint this year.”

The paint was not the only material needed for such a project, the pricing for glass beading was also presented. Potter’s Industry gave the lowest bid overall.

“The beading is what gives the lines their reflectivity at night. You won’t see the plain stripe, but when your headlights hit the beading, it will reflect light back to you,” explained Lutz.

The bids were approved 4-0 to purchase the supplies at a cost of $71,250 for the paint and $25,536 for the beading.

The approval of a conditional use permit for Gerand and Jan Geringer was next heard by the board. The property in question, which is occupied by the couple, has the potential and amenities to host a wide range of events. These events potentially include: wedding receptions, corporate retreats and family reunions. The property has already been used for such activities, but in order to change the actions into a home-based business, a Conditional Use Permit is required by the current zoning laws.

“There are others in the area hosting these same kinds of events that do not have CUPs,” pointed out Commissioner Peggy Palmer.

The motion to approve the CUP was approved with a vote of 3-1, only Peggy Palmer opposing.

“I think we need consistency in our CUPs in the county,” commented Palmer

The commission also:

• approved a homestead lot split with APO by Carey Fieser.

• approved a request by Callan Ammons for a homestead lot split.

• approved of a mortgage lot split by James Toevs.

• approved an application by Daniel and Chelsea Moore for rezoning.

• approved the payment of WAMPO 2014 Tip Fee Assessment.

• approved a notice to contractors for Culvert Letting No. 698 for the construction of seven reinforced concrete boxes.

• approved an interlocal agreement between Fire District #3 and the City of Andover Fire for automatic aid.